T Minus five and Holding
by ricojohn
Summary: AU: When Annabeth and Percy return to Space Camp they are mentally challenged by the counselors and the fellow campers. They also have to not only do well on their mission but beet the Aviation kids to the prize at the end of the twelve days. (I know this summary sucks. The story is better.)
1. Chapter 1

Hay figured I would right this one down. I have seen a few books and movies out there that surround kids going to space camp and thought it would be fun to wright a story based on one that I attended with the beloved characters from my favorite book series in it. A warning though some characters will be OC as most kids who attend it are super nerds. Yes that means I am a supper nerd as I actually attended it.

Enjoy!

Chapter one: Space Side

POV: Annabeth

As I got off the bus that dropped me off at Space Camp I looked around. The hot Alabama air was already making me sweat.

"We're here" Percy said next to me. "I can't believe we're back!"

I smiled at him.

"It's about as likely as hitting another celestial body via controlled explosions." I said.

Percy frowned in confession.

"But we all ready did that." He said. "You literally just described the Apollo missions to the moon."

"Rule of thumb." I said with a laugh.

He cracked a smile.

"Oh, come on." He said. "That hasn't been a thing since at least World War Two."

I laughed again. It was an old saying. (True fact) The term rule of thumb came from solders in WWI who were trying to shoot down biplanes that were strafing them. They would fire bullet after bullet at the planes and still not hit them. Eventually they came up with the rule of thumb. They realized if you could cover a target that was moving through the sky with your thumb when your arm is fully out stretched, you would never hit the target. Then it was a joke in the 1960's that NASA was crazy for trying the moon shot. Astro-naughts would hold out their arms and raise their thumbs and close one eve. They would stair up at the night sky and cover the moon with their thumbs and think.

'How the hell we supposed to hit that?'

But man did it. They went to the moon and back.

"World War II or not," I said. "Never ignore sound reasoning."

He shook his head and laughed as we walked into the camp towards Hab 1. Hab 1 was a building that looked like a pile of giant steal pipes stacked in a hexagon pattern. It was also our home for the next twelve days. As we went to enter the building we bumped into the one person I hated most.

"Well look who's back!" Shouted Clarisse. (Sorry if I miss spelled the name.) "It's the head wimp and her boyfriend."

"Piss off, Clarisse." Percy said as he moved to open the door to Hab 1.

Clarisse looked infuriated right before she slammed percy into one of the steel cross support that held up the domed mettle thing above us.

"What did you just say astro brain?" She demanded. "Maybe you'd like a lesson Aviation Challenge style?"

She was nose to nose with Percy now.

"No thanks." He replied cooly. "I prefer to use my brain," He paused. "You know it's that thing under that thick skull of yours."

This kind of argument was common here at Space Camp. The Aviation Challenge kids always wanted to prove they were better than the Space Camp kids. They barged about their physical training and the air combat simulators. I still remember an argument I had with a kid last year. The kid had his aviation dog tags around his neck and the camo pants and combat boots looked new. I was wearing my Space Camp flight jacket which had my name tag and all my patches from previous flight teems I was on sewed to it along with the space camp logo, an American flag on one sleeve and a NASA patch on the other. It was mixer night and there was one rule. You can not talk to any one from your flight group. You must meet new people.

I had sat down and was settling into the stool at the table when the aviation boy sat across from me.

"So you're space side?" He asked.

Space side was a slang term for a Space Camper.

I nodded.

"You must be a Fly Boy." I said.

This was a not as common term as Space Side but I herd it here and there.

"Bold talk coming from an astro brain." He said. "You couldn't hack it one day in Aviation. You'd quit after one push up." He shook his head in disgust. "All you Space Side's are the same. Sitting in the air-conditioned simulators all day think you're so tuff. Im out here working up a sweat and still training in air to air combat and survival skills."

I laughed at that.

"Well that is an in correct statement." I said. "We spend most of our time in lectures, designing and building space viewless and training for an LDM."

He seamed confused by this.

'Go figure' I thought. 'Just another jock.'

"Basically." I said. "We have to memorize the innermost workings of the Space Shuttle and what our role for the mission is and then we get locked in a simulator for a hole day."

"So what?" Asked the jock. "I have a six hour LDM where I need to dog fight in the simulators and evade capture in the survival course. All you gotta do is flick switches in the shuttle."

I shook my head.

"We are locked for a day with a counselor who's sole job it is for that day, is to screw with our lives however possible." I said. "They give us certain foods and thats it but they can give you fake allergies and not tell you so you have to be careful what you eat or your dead. They also break the shuttle and make you figure out how to fix it or your dead. And they give your teem secret missions like being a schizophrenia or something and you have to subdue the person or your dead." I sake my head. "I bet you wouldn't survive five minutes in a simulator with a ghost."

We call counselors who run the simulators ghosts. In a real space mission the only people in the ship are the crew. In the simulator there is a counselor that we are supposed to ignore unless they talk to us so we call them ghosts.

-Time break back to present.-

Still Annabeth POV.

I watched as Clarisse was about to punch Percy until she saw a counselor approaching. So she let him go and stormed off.

Percy laughed.

"Some things never change." He said as he turned to Hab 1. "Well shall we go check in?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Let's go and be nerds again." I said.

"Since when aren't we nerds?" He asked indignantly.

I laughed.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: If you like the story than review it and let me know what you think. Every review will get you an update so the more reviews the more chapters I post.


	2. Chapter 2

Hay! Thanks for the review and here is the next chapter. Warning though I wright as I get inspiration so the gap between chapters may be inconsistent.

This particular space camp is indeed real. For more info on it google Huntsville Alabama/US space and Rocket Center/Space Camp.

Terminology from ch 1 that I thought I should explain. LDM stands for Long Duration Mission.

HAB stands for Habitat.

Chapter 2: The Spoon!

POV:Annabeth

As we entered Hab1 we were greeted by a counselor in a Navy blue pollo shirt.

"Hi!" He said. "Is this your first time here?"

We shook our heads.

"Ok, so we have some veterans then." He joked. "Are you two Aviation Challenge?"

Percy looked offended by that.

"No." He replied curtly. "We're Space Camp."

The counselor nodded.

"Then step to my right and find your wrist band on the table." The counselor said. "Your room numbers are on the wrist band so just fin your rooms and drop your things off." He continued. "Then come back down to meet your flight group."

We nodded and walked over to the table where there was another counselor.

"Name?" The counselor asked.

"Annabeth Chase." I said.

The counselor flipped through a cabinet and then pulled out a laminated green bracelet with white paper below the clear plastic that coated it. On the paper was my name, home address, flight group name, room number and a barcode.

The counselor put the bracelet on my right wrist and locked it down so It couldn't come off unless it was cut off.

I felt like this was just a cheep dog tag. A way to identify the dead body and ship it home if I died.

Percy got his bracelet foo and we compared flight group names.

"What's your group called?" I asked him.

He checked his wrist.

"Wapasha." He answered. "How about you?"

I checked my wrist and cursed. My dyslexia was acting up again and I couldn't read the name of my team.

"Dyslexia?" Percy inquired, seeing the frustrated look on my face.

I nodded.

Percy knew I was dyslexic. He knew how frustrated I became when it acts up. The compensation was that I could see how things needed to be done and I could see the physics of how something would operate even before it starts to move. I can't read very well so my brain works over time to do what others read about.

"Here, let me help." Percy said, holding out his hand for my arm.

I gave him my wrist and he read the Team name and smiled.

"Looks like we're flight mates." He said. "You're in Wapasha too."

I smiled.

"Catch ya later." I said with a laugh. "Im gona go drop my bags in my room."

Percy nodded and we went our separate ways.

Eventually I found my room and took a deep breath before entering. What I found inside was two girls arguing. Now normally they would fight over boys or who's got better cloths but not these girls.

"...and Im telling you your wrong!" One girl shouted. "The Saturn V would eject the escape tower during the second stage not the third!" The exasperated girl shook her head. "Why would you need a tower when you're all ready in orbit?"

The girl she was fighting with seamed stumped by this question.

"That's what I thought." Said the first girl.

I shook my head and laughed.

"Only in Space Camp." I said with a chuckle as I entered the room.

The two girls turned to me in surprise.

"Who are you?" Asked the girl who just won the argument.

"My name's Annabeth." I said as I hoisted my things up onto the bed over the lockers.

"Im Katie." Said the girl who won the argument.

I nodded to her to let her know that I herd her.

"Im Selina." Said the other.

I nodded to her as well as I looked around the small room. Then something caught my eye on the ceiling.

"Huh." I (Said...Sounded...Ok I don't know what that noise classifies as and google is no help if you know please tell me.) noised.

"What's up?" Salina asked.

"Look up." I said nodding towards the ceiling.

They did.

"Huh." They both thingy majigged as they noticed the odd thing.

We stood there in silence for a few seconds as we stared at the small item.

"Is that a plastic spoon?" Katie asked in confession after a second.

I nodded.

"How'd they manage to duck tape it to the middle of the ceiling?" Selina asked.

"I guess it's possible if you're on a top bunk and your friend is holding onto your shirt collar as you lean out but Im more concerned about how they wrought at that angle." I said.

They both nodded in agreement.

We marveled at the one, perfectly written word next to the spoon. In big crisp letters that were clearly made by a pen was written the word SPOON.

We all just stared at it for a few seconds before cracking up.

"It just doesn't seem physical possible!" Katie cried out between historical laughter.

"Laws op physics denied!" I screamed.

"The spoon is my god now!" Shouted Salina. "All hail the SPOON!"

We all cracked up even harder.

Then we all cried out at once.

"ALL HAIL THE SPOON!"

"What?" Asked a new girl to my right who just walked in a second ago.

The three of us that were all ready in the room looked at each other for a second in shocked silence before cracking up even harder than before. I thought Salina was about to pee her self.

"What did I miss?" Asked the new girl in confession.

Laughing too hard to stand up, straight let alone speak, I just pointed to the spoon duck taped to the roof. A second later I herd the new girl crack up.

"And so began the church of the SPOON!" Katie called out.

We all laughed even more over the obesity of this. A random spoon on the roof.

When the laughter died a little the new girl spoke.

"Im Piper by the way." She said

Before any of us could respond the door opened and a counselor came in.

"Wapasha!" She called. "Let's go and meet the rest of the team!"

And so we left our room and the holy, physics denying, SPOON.

A MESAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: That last part actually happened to me on my first trip to Space Camp! My friend Jacob and I couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes. The SPOON was our god for the rest of our time there. Review and tell me what ya think of the chapter and any suggestions for future ones if you have an ideas.


	3. Chapter 3:Bort

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Sorry about the lag in updates but I was struggling with school and finding inspiration but I found it so the story continues!

Apologies: I keep miss spelling confusion. Spell check keeps changing it to confession and my dyslexia makes me miss it when I double check it before posting.

The mascot in this chapter is real though. My teem made it last year! I don't know what happened to it.

Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 3: Bort

POV:Annabeth

When we gathered in the lobby to meet the teem I began to feel lost. There was a lot of people gathered in this room and I don't do well in crowds. I prefer working in smaller groups.

There were people every where though.

"Wapasha!" I herd a voice to me left call out.

I turned and started walking in the direction the voice came from.

"Wapasha!" I called out in response, hoping to start a Marco Pollo type affect and get the attention of the hole group to gather in the aria.

Eventually I found the person that had been calling out.

"Hey, Percy." I said to the boy who was standing in front of me.

"Good to see you survived dropping off your bag!" he joked with a lopsided grin. "Not many people do!"

I laughed.

"Oh yah!" I said. "It don't get much more dangerous than that!"

We stood there by the small platform/stage in the lobby of Hab1 for a few minutes as the rest of the team gathered around. Then a counselor came over.

"Wapasha!" He called. "My names Dave and I'm one of your counselors for the two weeks!"

"Twelve days." Some one in the back of the group corrected.

"Whats the difference?" Called a kid from the other side of the group.

"Two days. That's the difference!" Called a third kid.

"Well," Called a fourth. "Are we counting weekends?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Called the second kid.

"Work weeks." Replied the first kid to call out.

"But we're not working." Said the third.

"So you call the LDM not working?" Asked the fourth kid.

"Guys!" Dave interrupted. "Stay on task, if we can!"

The group nodded.

"Good." Dave said. "We're going over to Hab2 to make our team mascot."

We all cheered and followed him out.

Once Wapasha and three other flight groups were gathered in a room in Hab2 we began the process of making the mascot.

"Wait!" I screamed as my teem started to run for the bodies. Most teems picked a cylinder or a box but that got too annoying.

The mascots were always made official members of the flight group and we never leave a man behind so we take them every where. If we leave them alone for a second the other groups can steal them and hold them for ransom. It wasn't high ransom but it was humiliating to have to do something public to get it back.

Wait!" I said again.

The group turned to look at me.

"Go for the bucket." I said. "We can carrie it using the handle, witch will make it easier."

The group nodded in agreement.

"And the skate board!" Called Percy. "We can roll it around on the floor so we technically don't have to hold it."

"But then it'll be stolen, unless some one wants to bend over it all day." Katie interjected.

"Not if we use duck tape." Called out a short boy with curly hair. "We can use the roll of duck tape to make a leash and put the plastic shovel that comes with the bucket on the end of it for a handle so we can pull it along."

"Good Idea, Leo." Said a tall blond boy next to Leo.

"Don't sound so surprised, Jason." Leo resounded.

And so the group set to work on the mascot.

In the end it was a funny looking thing. A green, plastic bucket on a doll's skate board, and wearing a cheep set of sunglasses with a tutu on and a flag pole lance with a Styrofoam ball on the end to stop people from getting hurt.

The leash was anchored to the front tip of the skate board so that there wouldn't be any balance issues when we pulled it, other than the bucket being top heavy, but slow movements corrected that.

"So what are we naming it?" Selina asked.

There was some debate over that but eventually the group reached a decision.

"Bort!" We all called out as we raised our mascot like it was a cub in "The Lion King".

Time break!

POV: Annabeth

That day at lunch I was sitting next to Percy and eating my pizza and drinking my Coke when the Fly Boys came in.

They were cheering, shouting and generally making fools of themselves.

"Fricken Fly Boys." Jason murmured to my left as Percy and I exchanged exasperated looks.

"Like I said." Percy began. "Some things never change."

A laugh went up from the kids sitting close to us.

"Wapasha!" Dave called out. "Time to get our roles for the missions!"

A cheer went up from my flight teem. All seventeen, eight teen if you count Bort, members of the group looked excited.

"I hope I get orbiter commander!" I squealed as I followed Percy out of the cafeteria.

Percy laughed at my excitement.

"Well then I volunteer as tribute to be your pilot." He joked.

"It's not your call on who gets what job." Selina said in back of us. "The counselors pick for the practice missions and we vote for the LDM."

"We know." I said. "We passed the five day program just like you did."

Selina shrugged.

Leo trotted up next to me as we entered the waiting aria out side the simulator room.

"All right!" Dave spoke up, cutting off what ever Leo was about to say. "Time for jobs!"

He checked his clipboard to see the names and jobs.

The group held it's breath in waiting.

"For Alpha mission," Dave began."The orbiter crew is, Commander Jason,..."

My hear dropped as I realized I wasn't Commander of the orbiter. Then I remembered that there were four missions.

"Annabeth is flight Director, ..." Dave said a few minutes later.

"Cool." I whispered to my self. Flight director (Flight) was the one in charge of ground control and the hole mission. Nothing happens without Flight's approval.

"And on to Bravo mission." Dave continued. "Orbiter Commander is Annabeth, ..."

I tried the best I could to control my excitement as I started to bounce up and down.

"Hay," Percy whispered next to me as Dave continued. "I'm your pilot."

I beamed at hime.

"Don't worry." I told him. "I'll bring you back alive."

He frowned at that.

"Don't get so cocky." He said. "Or did you forget about the E. coli incident."

I frowned at that.

"That was one time." I said in a low tone.

"And it sparked a hole thing in the manual." Percy continued. "Not to mention the hole pre-E. thing."

"That wasn't my fault!" I yelled at him. "And If i remember right I save your ass during it."

Percy laughed and held his hands up in an I surrender motion.

"You also missed the runway on landing Bravo mission last year." Percy said.

"It was a TAL abort!" I cried. "My HUD was down and it was night!"

"You still missed." He laughed.

"From an orbital decent!" I cried. "My back weals touched down five feet in front of the runway! I still came to a stop on it and at night!"

Percy laughed and shrugged.

"Oh I would love to see you do better, seaweed brain!" I called out, using my little nick name for the fish loving boy.

"Well it's too bad I'm the Pilot than." He said with a shrug. "Cuz now your flying the orbiter so..."

I laughed.

"Dam strait." I said.

It is a little known fact that the Space Shuttle's official name was an orbiter. Even less people know that the Pilot of the orbiter was actually the Co-Pilot. The real Pilot was the Commander. This stemmed back to the early days of NASA. During the Gemini program, when We first launched more than one person at a time. Back then the only people in NASA were scientists and crazy test pilots. When NASA tried to tell them they were the Co-Pilot of a space ship they would flip.

"I ain't Co-Nothin you sorry son of a bitch!" They would scream. "I'm a Pilot, dam it!"

So NASA had to change the names of the position to appease the crazy test pilots.

The pilot became Commander and the Co-Pilot became Pilot. The names stuck with NASA right up through the Shuttle program.

"Annabeth is CAPCOM, ..." Dave said as if reading a list.

What I though as I was pulled from my thoughts.

"Is this Charlie mission?" I whispered to Percy.

He nodded.

"And finally Delta mission." Dave called out.

I zoned out again until he mentioned my name.

"And commander of the ISS is Annabeth,..."

Once every one got their jobs we headed for Hab2 for a lecture on abort procedures.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Hope you liked it! If you want to read more than post a review and I'll update. The more reviews the higer on my update priority list the story becomes.

words that need to be explained:

TAL= Trans Atlantic Landing

E. coli= bacteria that live in digestive track but can kill you if ingested.

E. = Extra Tank Separation.= The part of the Space Shuttle's flight when it ditches the giant orange tank on it's belly.

ISS= International Space Station.


End file.
